No pay for us because it's not payday.
The fortune teller would have problems telling your fortune as you don't drink coffee.
In your email you have a booking confirmation from Tashkonak Studio Suites - doesn't look like there's anything unusual in it.
The cockatoos are back and picking at the planks on the deck. I think they're looking for edible acorns and decide to have a pick at the planks while they are there.
It sounds like the cockatoos are starving! First they eat pegs, then they eat the deck!
ReplyDeleteI booked my accommodation in Istanbul for the last week. The hotel has glowing reviews, so hopefully it is not too bad. It is less than half the price of this place. I decided it was OK so I worked out where I thought it was and walked to it. First off i got lost, but someone showed me the right direction (and his uncles carpet shop, and of course his cousin had been to Sydney and another cousin lives in Orange). Once I was in the right part it was still difficult to find,and I was quite pleased with myself when I did! I'm not sure i will ever find it again. The streets are all so small and narrow, and don't seem to bear any relationship to the maps! Yet the cars whiz down them - even buses! And when someone is parked they blow their horns until the owner appears to move it. And when someone is coming in the other direction, they have to back to a wider spot.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I also got lost trying to get to the ferry terminal. However I found a lot of fabric shops and the postal museum. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me in because I needed identification. However because I found it i knew where I was. The ferries don't go where my map says they go, so if I want to visit the city museum i need to catch one across to the asian side and then another to the bottom of the street where the museum is. I could also catch a tram and a bus which would take me to the door. I might go that way, and catch the ferry back.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to find information about ethnic clothing and patterns. Yesterday I went to the museum of Turkish and islamic art which was interesting but was mainly about the calligraphy and metalwork of the different Islamic empires - most of which were not even in Turkey! There were textiles including carpets, but there wasn't much.
ReplyDeleteIt is as if these things don't exist. I suppose they may not. The wearing of the Fez was banned in about the 1920s as were robes by nonclerics, so other ethnic clothing may have been frowned upon. However there are folkloric dance groups, and the dancers I saw at cappadocia wore a variety of ethnic clothing.
It is the same for architecture. After the 1999 quake the government said all houses over 40 years old have to be rebuilt (there are certainly exceptions), and just about everywhere old houses just don't exist and people live in modern flats - even in the middle of the country. It makes Turkey look forward especially as their road system is so good, but there seems to be a loss of character. I guess that's what is nice about the old part of istanbul - the buildings in the main are old. But in many areas the old buildings are being replaced.